Local Weather

Jamestown Mall’s JCV’s 5 Star Outlet to Close

Includes Jamestown Mall Store

After more than 50 years in business, JC’s 5 Star Outlet/JCPenney Outlet has announced the wind down of operations and the closing of all 15 Outlet stores in 14 states.

This includes the location at Jamestown Mall, which has had a J. C. Penney’s store of some kind at the mall for several years. A regular J. C. Penney’s store opened in a new addition to the mall in 1996. It was later converted to a J. C. Penney Outlet store.

The Dillard’s store at the mall closed in 2006, and Sears closed in 2008. The closing of the J. C. Penney Outlet will leave Macy’s as the only large anchor store.

“Going Out of Business” or “Total Inventory Blowout” sales has started in each Outlet store, offering consumers $70 million worth of quality name brand and private label products at significant discounts from the already low outlet prices of 25 percent to 75 percent off comparative retail.

The Outlet stores trace their roots to the JCPenney Company?s 1962 purchase of a Milwaukee, Wis., mail order company, the General Merchandise Company. JCPenney had realized the need for a process to sell overstocked and discontinued merchandise from its catalog and mail order operations, and in 1963 opened its first new Outlet store in Wauwatosa, Wis. This original store, selling overstocked and discontinued merchandise, was advertised as Penney’s Catalog Warehouse Outlet, an all-new, revolutionary type of Penney store.

The Outlet stores, which had been designated for closure by JCPenney, were acquired by SB Acquisitions in October 2011.

Glen Gammons, the former head of the JCPenney Outlet Store Division, and CEO of JC?s 5 Star Outlet, said closing the Outlet stores was a painful decision.

“The closing of the Outlets was necessitated by the precipitous decline of sales,” Gammons said. “After exploring all the alternatives, we could no longer incur the losses resulting from the continued operation of the Outlet stores.”

Gammons continued, “We wish to thank all of our associates for their hard work and dedication to the company throughout the years.”

JC?s 5 Star Outlet/JCPenney Outlet sells a wide range of private-label and national-brand apparel, shoes, and accessories for the entire family, as well as small electronics, domestics, housewares, and other products for the home.

Outlet prices,” Gammons said.

In addition to the inventory liquidation, fixtures and equipment from the stores also will be sold.